ESPN Boss Jimmy Pitaro Fixed “Fraying” NFL Relationship, League Exec Says

Pitaro made good on his promise to repair relations between the powerful sports entities

ESPN Boss Has Fixed Broken Relationship With NFL, League Exec Says
ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro attends The 2018 ESPYS. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty)
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In March, the relationship between America’s most popular sports network and most powerful league was described as “fraying” and it appeared as if ESPN and the National Football League could be headed for a messy break-up.

But, according to a new report from Front Office Sports, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro has made good on his promise to repair relations between the two powerful sports entities and the relationship between the NFL and The Worldwide Leader is now back on solid footing.

“Like good siblings, we always have our issues. We don’t always agree. But I think Disney and ESPN have been great generally – and Jimmy has been great specifically,” Brian Rolapp, the league’s chief media and business officer, told FOS.

Besides mentioning Pitaro’s personal involvement in fixing issues between the two sports giants, Rolapp also cited Disney’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 NFL Draft on ESPN and sister network ABC as being extremely helpful.

That’s interesting because one of the factors which led to the fracture in the first place was the NFL jointly producing a show about the draft with Fox, a program that directly competed with ESPN’s long-running draft show.

Fox also wanted to broadcast the actual draft itself, but ESPN was able to retain the rights to it after promising a broadcast which feature coverage on ABC as well as the popular College GameDay crew.

“They just made a very compelling case about how they could make the event bigger,” Rolapp said. “We always felt the draft could be as big as anything we do on television with the exception of the championship games, playoff games, and Super Bowl. It’s getting pretty close.”

The improved relations come at a key point in time for ESPN as its annual $1.9 billion contract with the NFL to broadcast Monday Night Football is up after the 2021 season. ESPN will want to be in the NFL’s good graces when that happens as big-time players like Turner Sports, Amazon, Google and Facebook are expected to bid for MNF’s broadcast rights.

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